With the recent popularity of mobile electronic devices such as tablets, laptops, and cellphones, wireless network systems are deployed in numerous places including public spaces so as to provide telecommunication and Wi-Fi services for mobile electronic devices. However, with widening of the range of signal coverage, signal degradation and signal instability may frequently occur due to signal interference and signal blocking by the terrain or obstacles. Generally, wireless routers having multiple antennas therein and being able to transmit signal waves with stronger power can meet usage requirements in an indoor environment where the wireless network system is deployed such as a home or small office. Nevertheless, as the range of signal coverage is getting wider and more mobile electronic devices are connected to the wireless network system at the same time, the problems of slow signal transmission speed, network traffic jam, and even network disconnection may occur.
In order to solve the aforesaid problems, one of the frequently-used conventional ways is to use a Wi-Fi extender to enlarge the range of signal coverage. However, the Wi-Fi extender occupies the frequency band resulting in a speed loss of the Wi-Fi network. In addition, for the user, the settings required in the two conventional ways result in a more complicated process than simply using a single wireless router.
Consequently, the Wi-Fi mesh network system is introduced and developed to solve the above-mentioned issues. Specifically, the Wi-Fi mesh network system is a local network topology in which the infrastructure nodes (i.e. bridges, switches and other infrastructure devices) connect directly, dynamically and non-hierarchically to other nodes as many as possible and cooperate with the nodes to efficiently route data from/to clients. The Wi-Fi mesh networks are dynamically self-organized and self-configured, so that the installation of the Wi-Fi mesh network can be simplified. The capability of self-configuration enables dynamic distribution of workloads of the Wi-Fi mesh network system. In other words, the Wi-Fi mesh network system can improve quality of connection via an easier setting process.
However, in the Wi-Fi mesh network system, the deployments of connection, disconnection, and reconnection among the mobile electronic device and access points (APs) are based on received signal strength indication (RSSI). Even if the conventional RSSI is reliable, three major problems may stem therefrom. Firstly, if the mobile electronic devices are too obsolete to support 802.11k protocols, measured signal strength will be unable to be reported. Secondly, the time spent on monitoring the connection quality of the mobile electronic devices may be influenced by at least one of the time for measuring the signal strength, amounts of the neighboring APs, and amounts of the connecting mobile electronic devices or potential mobile electronic devices, which would incur delay of switching Wi-Fi connection (hand-off). Thirdly, the mobile electronic devices may not always respond to the request of the RSSI, especially when the mobile electronic devices are busy.